Com. v. New York Cent. R. Co.

• Decision Date: 16 May 1966
• Citation: 350 Mass. 724,216 N.E.2d 870
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 870

216 N.E.2d 870

350 Mass. 724

COMMONWEALTH v. NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD COMPANY.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Middlesex.

Argued March 7, 1966.

Decided May 16, 1966.

Richard J. Ferriter, Boston, for defendant.

Barry M. Haight, Asst. Dist. Atty. (Ruth I. Abrams, Asst. Dist. Atty., with him), for the Commonwealth.

Before WILKINS, C.J., and SPALDING, WHITTEMORE, CUTTER, KIRK, SPIEGEL, and REARDON, JJ.

WILKINS, Chief Justice.

This complaint under G.L. (Ter.Ed.) c. 160, § 151, charges that on May 23, 1965, the defendant railroad did obstruct and occupy Waverly Street, a public way, in Framingham 'with its cars or engines for more than five minutes at one time.' The complaint was originally brought in the First District Court of Southern Middlesex, where the defendant was found guilty. See Commonwealth v. New York Cent. & Hudson River R.R., 206 Mass. 417, 92 N.E. 766. On appeal to the Superior Court the defendant filed a motion to dismiss, which was denied. It excepted and appealed. At the trial before a judge sitting without jury, it being admitted that the defendant's cars obstructed Waverly Street by consuming approximately seven minutes in traversing the crossing, the defendant was found guilty and sentenced to forfeit $100.

There were two grounds to the motion to dismiss: (1) General Laws (Ter.Ed.) c. 160, § 151, 'is not applicable to moving trains.' (2) If applicable to moving trains, § 151 is unconstitutional as contravening the commerce clause of the Constitution of the United States, art. 1, § 8.

At the hearing of the motion the facts appeared in an affidavit by one Bowes, the defendant's trainmaster at Framingham. On Sunday, May 23, 1965, at approximately 9:45 A.M. a train consisting of thirty-three freight cars consumed approximately seven minutes in traversing the crossing. The cars were being transferred from the defendant's classification yard in Framingham. Some were going to an unloading yard on Hollis Street, where the defendant maintains a marshaling yard for the unloading of tri-level and bi-level rail rack cars. Others were being transferred from the classification yard to the manufacturing plant of General Motors Corporation near Hollis Street. The rail rack cars and the cars for General Motors had been shipped from Detroit and Flint, Michigan, and brought in over the defendant's rail line for ultimate delivery to General Motors and automobile dealers in the northeastern section of the United States. To reach the unloading yard and the General Motors plant, it was necessary to cross Waverly Street on the defendant's Milford Branch. In traversing Waverly Street, the defendant's operation was to have one of the members of the crew bring motor vehicles to a halt on Waverly Street and then flag the train over the crossing. The train proceeds over the street 'at a fairly slow rate of speed.'

The violation charged in this complaint is one of thirty which the Commonwealth, acting through complaints filed by the chief of police of Framingham, has instituted in the District Court for violation of c. 160, § 151. Prior to the institution of these complaints, the number of cars to be placed in a train going to the unloading yard or to General Motors was determined by the number of cars received at a given time at the classification yard. This number would vary from five to fifty. As a result of the complaints, the superintendent of the defendant, by order dated June 9, 1965, restricted the number of cars 'per movement' over Waverly Street to fifteen multilevel or twenty regular box cars. Compliance with the order has resulted in a much more inefficient and costlier operation.

Section 151 provides. 'A railroad corporation, or receiver or assignee thereof, or its or his servant or agent, shall not wilfully or negligently obstruct or unnecessarily or unreasonably use or occupy a public way, or in any case obstruct, use or occupy it with cars or engines for more than five minutes at one time; and if a public way has been thus used or occupied with cars or engines, the railroad corporation, or receiver or assignee thereof, shall not again use or occupy it with the cars or engines of a freight train, until a sufficient time, not less than three minutes, has been allowed for the passage across the railroad of such travelers as were ready and waiting to cross when the former occupation ceased. A railroad corporation, receiver or assignee thereof, who violates this section, shall forfeit one hundred dollars.'

1. We have no doubt that the statute is intended to apply to moving trains as well as stationary ones. There is no phraseology limiting its application, and we detect nothing convincing in the legislative history which suggests that the Legislature at any time had in mind any exception by implication.

The first enactment, St.1854, c. 378, and its codification in Gen.Sts. (1860) c. 63, § 68, were aimed at imposing a fine if a railroad or its agents 'wilfully or negligently obstruct any highway, town way, or public street, in this Commonwealth, by their engines, tenders, or cars.' Statute 1871, c. 83, introduced the word 'use' and the five minute limitation. ^{1 1} In St.1874, c. 372, § 129, the act was amended into approximately its present form. ² Then came the codification by Pub.Sts. (1882) c. 112, § 169. In St. 1895, c. 173, receivers and assignees were included.

The point we are considering was conclusively set at rest by Mr. Justice Knowlton in Howard v. Union Freight R.R., 156 Mass. 159, 160, 30 N.E. 479, where it was said: 'The provisions of Pub.St. c. 112, §§ 169, 224, are not applicable to this case. The first of these sections relates to the use of the streets and highways by ordinary steam railroads at crossings, and is intended to prevent too long delays of travelers on highways at railroad crossings from the occupation of the highway by cars passing or standing over it.' This case is not cited in either brief. See Commonwealth v. New York Cent. & Hudson River R.R., 202 Mass. 394, 398, 88 N.E. 764, 23 L.R.A.,N.S. 350.

Two cases are cited to us where to avoid ruling that there was an interference with interstate commerce in violation of art. 1, § 8, an apprehension which we do not share under the present statute, the pertinent ordinances were construed as not applying to moving trains. In Kahn v. Southern Ry., 202 F.2d 875 (4th Cir.), which is distinguishable from the case at bar, two ordinances were construed together, one prohibiting obstruction of street crossings for more than three minutes at a time, and another proscribing speeds of more than four miles an hour across any street. In Ocean View Improvement Corporation v. Norfolk & Western Ry., 205 Va. 949, ^a the ordinance forbade obstructing a street for eight minutes 'by a locomotive, engine, car or train,' and invited a narrow construction. In City of Cincinnati v. Luckey, 153 Ohio St. 247, 91 N.E.2d 477, the ordinance prohibited blocking a street crossing for more than ten minutes and was held invalid for unreasonableness because no allowance was made for contingencies beyond the control of the operators of the train and there was no provision as to whether the blocking resulted in a hindrance or inconvenience to anyone in lawful use of the highway.

2. There is no violation of art. 1, § 8, of the Constitution of the United States. 'The interstate commerce clause did not withdraw from the states the power to legislate with respect to their local concerns, even though such legislation may indirectly and incidentally affect interstate commerce and persons engaged in it.' Boston & Maine R.R. v. Armburg, 285 U.S. 234, 238, 52 S.Ct. 336, 337, 76 L.Ed. 729; Atlantic Coast Line R.R. v. State of Georgia, 234 U.S. 280, 290--291, 34 S.Ct. 829, 58 L.Ed. 1312; State of California v. Thompson, 313 U.S. 109, 115--116, 61 S.Ct. 930, 85 L.Ed. 1219; Huron Portland Cement Co. v. Detroit, 362 U.S. 440, 443--444, 80 S.Ct. 813, 4 L.Ed.2d 852; Head v. New Mexico Bd. of Examrs. in Optometry, 374 U.S. 424, 428, 430, 83 S.Ct. 1759, 10 L.Ed.2d 983.

Nothing in Southern Pac. Co. v. State of Arizona ex rel. Sullivan, 325 U.S. 761, 65 S.Ct. 1515, 89 L.Ed. 1915, persuades us to reverse the court below and to reach a different result. In that case an Arizona statute made it unlawful to operate a passenger train of more than fourteen cars or a freight train of more than seventy cars. The majority opinion recognized that there remained a large area for State regulation: 'There has thus been left to the states wide scope for the regulation of matters of local state concern, even though it in some measure affects the commerce, provided it does not materially restrict the free flow of commerce across state lines, or interfere with it in matters with respect to which uniformity of regulation is of predominant national concern' (p. 770, 65 S.Ct. p. 1521). It concluded, however, that the Arizona statute 'materially impedes the movement of appellant's interstate trains through that state and interposes a substantial obstruction to the national policy proclaimed by Congress, to promote adequate, economical and efficient railway transportation service. * * * Compliance with a state statute limiting train lengths requires interstate trains of a length lawful in...